Healthcare professionals may prescribe medications to patients which are often to be taken according to a schedule. For example, a doctor may prescribe a medication that the patient is to take once daily. Typically, medications come in tablet form and are packaged in capped bottles to which a label is affixed. The label usually includes the patient's name, the name of the medication, the medication dosage, instructions for taking the medication, and side effects that the patient may experience.
After the patient has been prescribed the medication, it is the patient's responsibility to follow the medication's instructions and to take the medication on schedule. However, patients often fail to correctly take the medication prescribed to them, if at all. For instance, a patient may not regularly take medication and may forget the prescription because it is outside the patient's usual routine. In other instances, a patient may take multiple medications and may become confused as to which medication to take at a certain time. In other cases, a patient may be unsure whether he or she took the medication and has since forgotten. In any of these situations, the failure to take a medication according to instructions and on schedule may have adverse health effects on the patient.
Systems and methods of providing containers to sort and remind patients of their medications are available. Such containers are often arranged with compartments for each day of the week in which medication is stored. More specifically, patients sort their medications at the beginning of the week into these compartments and take the medication or medications in each individual compartment as the week progresses. However, even with these medication sorting containers, patients still sometimes fail to take their medications on time.
Existing strategies for reminding patients to take their medications are well shown by Jackson in U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,480 (hereinafter the '480 patent). The '480 patent discloses a series of compartments in a body, with each compartment labeled for a specific time.
Improvements in medication storage containers are desired to merge medication taking into patients' already existing customary routines and thereby help patients remember to timely take their medications. Furthermore, patients who take their medications on time may heal more quickly or better manage their ongoing conditions, reducing their needs to repeatedly visit their physicians and thereby reducing overall healthcare costs.